Taking The Other Side Seriously

I just deleted a post in which I linked to and quoted in full the Get Your War On guy's advice after the election. I'll leave the link, but I removed the rest. I just finished reading this quite long and slightly more mature essay by John Perry Barlow, titled Magnamimous Defeat. He's apparently going to have a little trouble sticking to the inclusiveness he preaches, since he falls off the wagon several times just in this piece. Still, I think he's on the right track.

This will be a tricky four years. In addition to a sense of humor, which should have plenty of dark meat to feast on, we will need cunning, courage, clarity, and, as I say, forgiveness. We will need understanding, perspective, and something that also seems in ready supply at the moment, humility. And, since victory is to the patient, we will need patience.

And to continue in that same vein, here's a link (via Jo Miller, who adds, "And my dears, it doesn't matter how right you are--no one is going to listen to you if they don't like you. Unless you're holding the gun. But that's another matter."), to an Open Letter To The Democratic Party.

6. Here is something you could work on right about now: I could not stomach to listen to your incessant hatred of President Bush. Bush is stupid, Bush is an idiot, Bush is Hitler, Bush is a Nazi, Bush masturbates to photos of dead Iraqi babies, I'd vote for my dog before I'd vote for Bush, I'd vote for Castro before I'd vote for Bush, the Rethuglicans are fascists, Bush voters are treasonous, Bush should be impeached, blah blah blah blah blah blah. It was old three months after Bush's inauguration, and it's now just tiresome. I don't hate my President, even though I voted for him with more reluctance than I can express and a queasy feeling in my stomach. Language like this makes you seem immature, needlessly vulgar, and obnoxious.

I wouldn't agree to giving her everything she wants (for example, I think other countries' opionions do matter - it's called diplomacy, and in an ever-shrinking world it's just as important as it always has been), but she's right on this point. Although I actually do think Bush is stupid, Bush is an idiot, Bush voters are treasonous, Bush should be impeached, and I really would vote for my dog before I'd vote for Bush (whether I had a dog or not), her point is well taken. All that vitriol is at best distracting, and at worst completely alienating. So I for one will also try to cool it. (I said "try.") As long as you all know how I really feel.

P.S. Props to my ahead-of-the-curve friend who talked to me about all this last week already. I'm slow, but I get it now.